INtelligent Direct: A Marketer Generation Playbook

I see multiple articles every day talking about this generation or that generation. As a strategist, it’s crucial to know what channels those audiences are tuning into, backed by data, so when it comes time to create campaign strategy and plan, you know what cards to play.

Marketers focus mainly on three generational cohorts that are actively contributing to the majority of online/offline purchase behavior in the United States:

For this exercise, I’m going to pick a product and create a play. I went to my Instagram feed and picked the first sponsored ad to serve an impression and it was a retargeted ad for Universal Orlando since I was looking at hotels in Orlando recently. OK, so we’re marketing a family-friendly hotel in a popular vacation destination. Go!

Step #1 – Target Audience Research Look at current customer base demographics/psychographics and what they have in common. In this case we’ll target females age 30 – 50 who have children who are likely to range in age from 3 – 12. This is a mixture of older Millennials and younger Generation Xers.

Step #2 – Create a Playbook

Step #3 – Set a Budget Many marketers are unaware of what type of budget is required to execute on all recommended channels. It’s like buying a car. You start with what you want to spend and what realistically you can get for that budget. Some organization have no idea what a media buy would cost them, but most of the time well-established businesses have a set budget for marketing in mind.

Step #4 – Execute This is where web developers will add any pixels to support programmatic ad spends. Then, campaigns are pushed out with cost per click (CPC) budgets set, postcards hit the mail, etc.

Step #5 – Measure Response This is when metrics are pulled together from each marketing channel and conversions are attributed to each channel to track return on marketing investment (ROMI). Campaign stats can be compared to past campaigns to know what channels perform the best, which may influence what channels are included in the next campaign.

Would you like to know what your playbook could look like? Let’s talk.